A personal guide to the best places in London.

Sunday
08Nov2009

Mosob

Here's a real gem and, just like the Greedy Buddah, you'd never find it if you didn't know about it.

On the Harrow Road, just by the Prince of Wales junction, Mosob is an Eritrean restaurant (been to many of those?!) with a huge heart and fantastic cooking.  The food comes served on a great circle of stretchy, tangy-sour bread and you eat by tearing the bread off and scooping up as much of the delicious meat and vegetable dishes as you can.

The decor and the mood is perfect and the people who own and run it are the friendliest and coolest in town.  If you're really in luck, you'll hit one of their monthly Friday parties when its time to crack open the Courvoisier and get down with some of the heaviest Hip Hop and R'n'B you're likely to find the right side of the river.

If the out-of-town location's putting you off, don't let it.  Westbourne Studios, the Grand Union, the Metropolitan and the Cobden Club are all minutes away and you're walking distance to the Portobello Road.

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Sunday
08Nov2009

Builders Arms

The Builders Arms is a quintessentially Chelsea gastro pub just off the Kings Road, near Chelsea Farmers Market.  As such, it's not the most down to earth clientele, nor is it the cheapest beer.  However, the food is pretty good for the money and there's something warm and fuzzy about the interior. 

Whether it's a couple after work or a lazy Saturday afternoons, there are certainly worse places to be squirreled away.

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Sunday
08Nov2009

Mildreds

Mildreds is a busy, modern vegetarian restaurant.  It started life in a tiny little space on Greek Street but's now a mid sized place just south of Newburgh Street in the west of Soho.

You'll probably have to queue on a Thursday or Friday night but it's worth it and you can squeeze in a cramped drink when waiting.  They change the menu all the time but it's always based around stalwart veggie options like burgers and stir fry.

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Saturday
31Oct2009

Mau Mau

The Mau Mau is the heart of Portobello Road.  You can turn up for an evening, which may or may not have some live music but the best way to experience it is to arrive mid morning on the weekend in Summer, get one of the outdoor tables and keep sinking the Coronas as the world goes by.

Around 5pm the market will start to fade away and you'll enter the transition zone as the crowd thins out before evening kicks in and time, if it mattered to begin with, loses all efficacy.

Some great nights to be had in a great bar.  One of the best in town and plenty of places to move onto should the crowd take you.

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Saturday
31Oct2009

The Friendly Society

This seedy doorway on one of Soho's red light streets conceals a compromised barbie and ken doll decorated bar (you'll understand once you're in there) with great music and, for me, a personal history of much too much absinthe consumption.

if you don't mind (or for that matter if you're actively seeking) the male orientated crush, don't be shy; admire the decor and, once the wormwood's started to kick in, crawl onto the kissing sofa in the back and start making friends.

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Saturday
31Oct2009

Lab Bar

This two level Soho bar has a cocktail menu like a short novel and bartenders who know how to make them.  Music tends to be a bit 90s in spirit and it hasn't got the character or the vibe of the not so far away Freuds but you really can't argue about the drinks, most of which you'll be lucky to ever find again.

They do 'Lab Experience' training courses too.  Bet you learn a few tricks on those.

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Saturday
31Oct2009

Freud

Freuds (with an 's' as it's universally known) is a small downstairs cocktail bar at the top of Neal Street in Covent Garden.  Heaving with students and office workers Thursday through Saturday, it's always a great atmosphere and tends to play good music to go with the crazy lethal drinks.

Top recommendation is a "Jamaican Mule - no sugar".  Have a few of them and watch the tromp de l'oeil staircase into nowhere get more and more confusing.

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Saturday
31Oct2009

Guanabara

Whilst some nights it feels a bit too much like an after work party and others you queue round the block just to get in, walking through the double doors into the main room at Guanabara has the power to catapault you into a world of hip swinging excess.

Maybe it's the live samba bands, maybe the frenzy of ice mashing as they churn out the Caipirinhas but if you've timed it right on the right Friday night, you'll find a life force whipped up on the circular dance floor unequalled this side of Rio.

Go on, get some cocktails in, get up the front and don't stop dancing until they kick you out.

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Monday
19Oct2009

Monmouth Coffee Company

The finest of London coffee dispensers, the Monmouth Coffee Company is an oasis of darkly roasted intensity in a desert of over steamed slosh.

The staff are super friendly and you can deliberate with them over which coffee you want your chest hair inducing double-espresso-as-standard to be made with. 

Look downstairs as you're queuing and you'll see their original roasting kitchen. There are small, shared wooden tables at the back, benches to perch on out front or you can take away to nearby Seven Dials.

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Monday
19Oct2009

Lantana

Lantana is a trendy new cafe tucked away on Charlotte Place, near the corner of Charlotte Street and Googe Street.

Ever so slightly too trendy for its own good right now (do we have queue and listen to loud music on a Saturday morning?) it thankfully also arguably serves the best coffee in town (sourced, of course, from the veritable Monmouth).

When Timeout stopps plugging it and the haircuts melt away, this might just turn into a gem.

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